I’m so excited to bring this project to Wizrocklopedia! For those unfamiliar, Wrock the Reread is a social media music project where I pair wizard rock songs to the contents of Harry Potter books.

After five years of Wizard Rock show attendance and almost twenty years of Harry Potter obsession, I wanted to give some different context to my next reread of the series. I want to reread the series and give myself, as well as anyone following my twitter account a soundtrack. A soundtrack specifically created by the wonderful creators in the Harry Potter fandom and the Wizard Rock community.

With almost two years on Twitter, I wanted a better location to keep the playlists for people looking for them, and sharing them through the ‘Pedia seemed like a great solution! I’ll still be tweeting regularly on my account, but a nice summary of each chapter will be shared here starting today, with Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived.

I hope you discover some new tunes or rediscover old favorites along the way!

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Chapter 1:  The Boy Who Lived

[The first song to start out your reread should be the first song that starts out a Harry and the Potters show – “When I Was A Baby” by Harry & the Potters]

Vernon and Petunia Dursley, of Number Four Privet Drive (in Little Whinging, Surrey), are proud to say that they are perfectly normal, thank you very much. They are the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just don’t hold with such nonsense. Vernon is the director of a drill-making firm called Grunnings, and Petunia keeps house and raises their one-year-old son Dudley. [“The Boy Who Lived” by The Moaning Myrtles] 

On Tuesday, 1 November 1981, the Dursleys begin the day by gossiping about their neighbours while Petunia wrestles their toddler into his high chair. None of them notice a large tawny owl flying past their window, but Vernon does notice the tabby cat reading a map and a street sign outside their house. [“Vernon Durlsey” by Harry & the Potters] He forces himself to forget the sight, but upon arriving in town, he notices large groups of people wearing cloaks. He eavesdrops on them and hears them talking about “the Potters and their son Harry.” [“Harry Potter’s Alive” by Tonks and the Aurors] Vernon finds this horrifying because the Potters are his in-laws, and he and Petunia wouldn’t want anyone to find out about them.

When he leaves work at the end of the day, he bumps into a small man wearing a cloak, but when he tries to apologise, the man hugs him and tells him that even muggles like him should be celebrating today because “You-Know-Who” has been defeated.[“The Boy Who Lived” by RiddleTM]

Vernon returns home to find the cat still waiting there, and it only gives him a stern look when he tries to shoo it away. The news is full of unexplained owl sightings and firework displays, and Vernon nervously asks Petunia if she has heard from her sister recently. Petunia is upset, but she does tell him that she hasn’t heard from her sister and that their nephew’s name is “Harry.” [“Flying Motorbike” by Weasel King] Vernon’s heart sinks. He finds it difficult to fall asleep that night, but eventually manages it.

After the Dursleys fall asleep, Albus Dumbledore appears in the middle of Privet Drive and siphons away the light from the street lamps with his Deluminator. He greets the cat who has spent all day waiting outside as “Professor McGonagall,” and the cat turns into a human woman. They discuss the deaths of James and Lily Potter at the hands of Lord Voldemort at the Potter cottage in Godric’s Hollow and how their son Harry miraculously survived the attack while Voldemort has seemingly died.

Rubeus Hagrid arrives riding a flying motorbike and transporting baby Harry. He hands him over to Dumbledore, who leaves the sleeping baby and a letter to the Dursleys on the doorstep of Number Four. The three wizards are distraught to leave the orphaned baby with his relatives, but they only give themselves a moment to mourn before they force themselves to leave. Hagrid says he will return the motorbike to its owner, young Sirius Black; McGonagall resumes her cat form and slinks around the corner at the other end of the street; and Dumbledore restores the lights to the streetlamps and bids Harry farewell before vanishing without a trace. [“After the War” (album) by The Secret Broom Cupboard of Salazar Slytherin]

Harry rolls over inside his bundle of blankets, and his small hand closes on the letter as he sleeps on. He does not know that he is special and famous, that he will be woken up the next morning by his aunt’s scream when Petunia opens the front door to put out the milk bottles, that he will be spending the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley, or that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country are toasting, “To Harry Potter — the boy who lived!” [“The Boy Who Lived” by Ollivander]

That’s all for Chapter 1! What did you think? Any songs I missed that you would have included? If so, drop them in the comment box below!